marqués de riscal

Where old meets new

FOR a relatively small and un-assuming village nestling quietly in the hills of Rioja, Elciego has earned quite a reputation for its self over the years. It all started back in 1858 when the local winery broke all the rules of Spanish winemaking. It went French.

The Marqués de Riscal, one Camilo Hurtado de Amézaga – diplomat, journalist, freethinker and with vineyards and bodega in Elciego – was asked to bring some classic Bordeaux know-how to the local Spanish wine industry.

Together with Jean Pineau, master winemaker at Chateau Lanessan, he imported French vines such as Cabernet Sauvignon and the Bordeaux style of winemaking to totally revolutionise Rioja forever.

Complementing local Tempranillo grapes with the imported grapes and techniques such as ageing in American oak barrels, created a Rioja that was at once true to its roots and yet ground breaking in its character: a real marriage of old and new.

By 1862 Marqués de Riscal had a wine that was destined to become a classic: aged for two years in oak, the wine still has its hallmark balsamic character with subtle cinnamon edges.

The wine soon began winning top prizes at all the major European wine exhibitions, and in 1895 became the first non-French wine producer to win the coveted Diplôme d’Honneur.  A feat still proudly represented on the label to this day.

The pioneering spirit didn’t stop with the wine however.  The oldest building in the winery dates back to 1860, and contains Spain’s first Bordeaux style cellar, known as The Cathedral.  Its walls are two metres thick and provide a naturally constant temperature of 14ºC, a perfect home to over 180,000 bottles, with some of the best and oldest vintages in Spain.

The rest, as they say, is history.  Today, Marqués de Riscal Reserva and the even more elegant Gran Reserva (aged three years in oak and a further three years in the bottle) are generally regarded as some of the best Rioja wines available, and grace many of the top tables around the world, including those of the King of Spain.

The spirit of innovation has never left the brand.  In 1972, the decision was made to move into white wines. Once again, the boldness and vision has paid off.  The winery in Rueda has had very impressive results, with the old vine Verdejo grapes providing both an expansive fruity white and a golden creamy Limousin oak aged variety.

A new addition to the family has been the Riscal 1860, made with 100 per cent old vine Tempranillo, sourced from around the Duero region.  A smooth, intense wine for a younger, relaxed-drinking market, Riscal 1860 once again proves that the old world can take on the new world and win.

In recent years the winery at Elciego has undergone extensive modernisation, with state of the art winemaking facilities such as automated storage control and new racking and bottling lines. But the traditions that are at the heart of the brand remain true.

The grapes are still only harvested by hand from vines at least 15 years old, with grapes from vines over 30 years undergoing manual selection to eliminate any impurities or substandard fruit. Technology is embraced, but never at the expense of the wine.

The marriage of old and new continues to this day.  And nowhere is that marriage more evident than with the latest innovation at Elciego: a truly stunning new hotel and visitor centre designed by Frank Gehry, of Bilbao-Guggenheim fame.

Rising magnificently above the tiled rooflines of the old winery, the new building will be opened towards the end of 2005, and already looks set to cause quite a stir.  The Gehry vision is of a typically organic, curving building that at once echoes its environment, the village, and its people, the vineyards, but also the product.

The design takes its cues directly from a bottle of Marqués de Riscal Reserva, inspired by the bottle of 1929 vintage which was presented to Gehry to commemorate the year of his birth and act as a thank you for agreeing to do the job: the gold resembles the wire netting which covers the bottle, the silver stands for the foil crown, and the flowing pink is, naturally enough, the red wine.

As if to emphasise the quality of the wines and the architect, the hotel will be managed and run by Starwood.  Already marked to be one of the group’s premier resorts, there will be only 45 exclusive rooms, centred around a top class restaurant and spa.

But for all its beauty and pioneering architecture the building -is rooted, quite literally, in the wine. In a clever nod to the heritage and spirit of Marqués de Riscal, Gehry has designed the building’s three massive central columns to dive deep into the Elciego winery’s new bottle cellar, home to seven and a half million bottles of fine wine. From the old comes the new.

No doubt Don Camilo Hurtado de Amézaga would approve wholeheartedly. 

UK Agent

Laurent Perrier (UK) Limited 66-68 Chapel Street

Marlow

Bucks

SL7 1DE

Tel: 01628 475404

enquiries@laurent-perrier.co.uk